A Simple 'Hello'
by Magical Malady
Summary: A forbidden romance, both families never being able to know about the other. Two teenagers stealing mere moments over a Muggle telephone. Is it even worth it anymore? [Newly edited and reworked!]


**AN- **This is my take on the universe, it is, after all, "alternate universe." Sirius was a Marauder, highly intelligent and cunning, there is no denying. Is it unfathomable that he'd be able to get a simple Muggle device to work, especially if it would spite his horrid mother and everything she stood for?

**Disclaimer-** These are JKR's puppets; I just pull the strings.

**Quick note-** I am ignorant about phone numbers across the Atlantic, I only know how they are formatted in the US, so please bear with me.

**A Simple 'Hello'**

She walked out of her bedroom slowly, feeling like somebody was downstairs. A faint sense of urgency filled her, and, rounding the corner, she saw him, knowing him instantly by his dark hair and eyes. She tried running towards him, her heart wanting nothing more than to be in his arms, but it seemed as if an invisible barrier were separating the two of them. The alarm was evident in his eyes, and for the first time in her years of knowing him, she saw fear reflected in them.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked him, her voice shaking slightly, truly scared for once. His eyes changed from mere fright into outright panic. It was as if he was silenced- was talking very fast but no sound escaped his perfect lips. He kept speaking, not knowing that she couldn't hear him, his eyes growing wider and gestures becoming more erratic with every passing moment. Her heart plummeted when, after reaching for her wand, she realized it was still on her night stand. She heard a noise behind her, but there was nothing but darkness. The sound traveled behind her, louder that time, and the unseen figure entered her peripheral vision. Everything went black.

Screaming. Always waking up screaming, a light sweat coating her for the third time that week. She sat there struggling to calm down, trying to remember her always-evasive dream. All she could remember, though, was seeing his panicked face without a voice. Thinking, she knew it had to be important.

She stood up quickly, and immediately felt dizziness overcome her. Falling back into her bed, she took a few stabilizing breaths and used her nightstand to get back up. She slowly walked across her bedroom to her trunk and started rifling through the papers, looking for a single scrap. After nearly ten minutes of rifling she finally found it: the simple set of digits written in a tiny elegant script could only belong to _him _. She read over it three times, part of her secretly wishing he had given her a fake number in the hopes that it would throw her off the irrational chase. Another part of her, however, just wanted to hear his soft voice.

Creeping out of her room, the young woman was very careful to avoid the squeaky spot in the hallway, and step over the second-to-last step, so as not to wake her family. When she hit the last step, she stood statue-still, afraid somebody might have fallen asleep in the sitting room, or had come down for a drink. Finally, deciding that it was safe to move again, she relaxed and quickly strode into the kitchen.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked around, and finally found a faint glimmer; the moon's reflection was bouncing off the plain white telephone. She half ran, half tip-toed to the light, and picked up the phone to see the glowing numbers. The buttons glared brightly in her face, and slowly the first few numbers were depressed. Her heart sped up immediately as her finger slowly traced the last button. Hesitation took over while she waited for her pulse to slow down. As the clock ticked, she faintly heard "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up, and try your call again."

She laughed silently to herself and dialed the number again, with feigned confidence overruling her nerves. For a moment, all she could hear was her own quickening heartbeat. In what seemed like forever, the silence stretched on, until finally, the lines connected. The ringing was thunderous compared to the previous silence, and hearing it made her stomach jump. The phone rang once, twice before she heard a soft click.

She wasted another moment to hear his voice, unwilling to speak first, hoping it would be him, yet also hoping that it wasn't.

"Hello?" he asked, wondering who would be calling him at this time of night, but speaking so softly that if it weren't for the vacuous silence she never would have realized he had spoken.

She heard the single muttered word and recognized his voice instantly. It had been foolish of her to think that he might have given her a fake number- she knew he wouldn't let her down like that. A long breath slowly escaped her lips, and her hands stopped trembling.

"It's me." She said nearly silently, her voice amazingly steady compared to the panic she had put herself through moments before. Straining her ears, she thought she heard laughing in the background, though the silence may have been playing tricks on the mind.

"Lily," he breathed. "I wish I could talk to you right now, truly I do. We need to talk, it's important, but… it's concerning present company…" he trailed off. Always up front and honest with her before she even had to ask, that was one of the things that she loved about him. Her head was spinning. She didn't know what to think. It must have been about one of the other Marauders. When her confusion had settled somewhat, she took a deep breath and felt her body relax some.

"I thought that there was something… promise me you will call me tomorrow then?" Lily asked hopefully. She felt as if her heart stopped while she waited, trying desperately to be silent so that she could hear his long-awaited answer. She heard him breathe into the phone and everything got muffled for a moment, a female voice lingered in the background.

"Lils? You still there?" he asked in his near silent, velvet voice. She nodded quickly, then realized that he couldn't see her.

"Yeah."

"I'll call you tomorrow evening, if it's safe, alright?" he whispered softly, somehow managing to soothe her with just his silky voice.

"What do you mean, 'if its safe'?" she asked quickly, fear washing over her. Dozens of ideas went through her head at once, the next so much worse than the one before it. Her breathing became erratic as her body went into full-blown panic mode.

"Don't worry, Love. What I meant was, if it's safe to talk freely. You know how things are over here. If they knew that I was talking to you… Plus, there's something important that certain people can't overhear, and I'm not going to take the risk of that happening. Okay?" he quietly explained, not knowing what was going through her head, but yet again calming her down.

"Alright," Lily said, a little louder than she meant to; she heard a noise from the other room, and it sounded like she had woken someone up, though it could just have been her paranoia. She felt the panic set in again, and spoke much quicker and more quietly. "Call at midnight, not a minute sooner. I'll make sure it's safe on my end."

"And if I'm not clear?" he asked her hurriedly, knowing that their time was nearly up.

"I'll wait ten minutes. After that, don't call. I'll assume you won't be able to anyway." She told him. He whispered in agreement, and suddenly felt a pang of guilt ran through her. "This is my fault, isn't it?" The thought escaped her lips before she could catch herself, hearing a sharp intake of breath from him in response.

"None of this is your fault." He said harshly. "I don't know what could possibly make you think that."

"How is it not my fault? It's because of me that we can't use owls or talk during the day!" Knowing she couldn't yell at him only made her want to raise her voice even more.

"So what? This way is probably safer anyway! What do you think would happen if my dear old mother got to an owl from you before I did?" he hissed, still trying to be quiet. Lily heard the sound of walking coming from the hall and decided time was up.

"Someone's coming, I have to go." She breathed, wishing she were with him. Sneaking around on the phone was exhausting, and all she wanted was to be with him, no secrets, not hiding their relationship.

"Alright Love. Midnight?"

"Yes. I love you," she whispered. She heard a deep sigh on his end, and knew in her heart that he wouldn't say it back.

"I—" he faltered. "I love you too, Lil, I really do." He spoke so quietly and so softly that she could barely believe her ears, causing her heart to pace triple-time.

"Goodnight," Lily hung up the phone before he could respond, for underneath her pure happiness lay a new raw, irrational fear. _'He said it… That— that's not right, he's not supposed to say it back! There's something wrong!'_ she panicked, not knowing what to think, and almost every part of her wanting to pick up the phone and hit redial, or better yet, get her arse over there and see for herself what was going on.

Another part of her, the sane, rational part knew that someone was still awake, and she would need an alibi to be down here this time of night. Glancing at the illuminated clock on the dying microwave, she saw that it was only 11:30 PM. _Damn… 25 hours until I can hear his voice again…"_ she thought to herself. She grabbed a glass of water and made her way back upstairs. But, to her dismay, she couldn't shake off the storm of random thoughts that always came with her nighttime calls.

Collapsing onto her bed and grabbing the stuffed shaggy pup he had gotten her for Christmas, the thoughts and accompanying tears came freely. If she resisted, she knew, sleep would never come for her.

The last fully-conceived thought she remembered before drifting into unconsciousness was wondering if the risk was worth it.

Read? Like? Review?

Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

A review from 'Teardrops' said more dialogue… well that's all this story is!

Hope you liked it!


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